Acoma Tribe in New Mexico

This is interesting to me because I grew up in Southern Colorado in the 40's and 50's. I knew some of the Ute and Navaho people and their love for their homes and families. I'm glad to see that the Acoma are teaching their traditions to the young people. This is an important job for all the grandparents to do.

Edith St. Louis

Keres Teachers Keep Acoma Tradition Alive
by Diane Fowler

LAGUNA PUEBLO -

Three daughters of Acoma Pueblo are teaching the younger generation the language of their ancestors in Cibola County.

As the first teachers in the new Acoma-Keres Language Program, Marlene Vicenti, Cheryl Lowden and Josephine Yazzie pass on the traditional language to students at Cubero Elementary School and Laguna-Acoma High School.

The language program grew out of a Memorandum of Agreement among the Pueblo of Acoma, the Grants/Cibola County School Board and the New Mexico Department of Education, which allowed the pueblo to recruit and certify its own instructors regardless of established state standards for public school teachers.

The three women expressed great enthusiasm for the program during the interview at the high school, where they were joined by Gloria Hale, Director of Native American Education for the Grants/Cibola County School District.

Vicente is from Acomita Village, where she has lived all her life. She attended the University of New Mexico for one year and became so homesick that she dropped out and returned home.

Vicente then attended New Mexico State University-Grants campus where she earned an associate’s degree in early childhood education. “Keres was my first language,” Vicente said. “I was actually forced to learn English, but I love teaching our language to the kids.”

Vicente is seeing the effect of learning the native language in the classroom. “Most of the students have heard the language at home, but don’t know the meaning of what’s behind it. Now they can’t get enough of the language and I hate to see the classes end. These kids learn where they’re supposed to be,” she said.

Yazzie grew up in McCartys with her grandparents, who spoke Keres at home. She went on to work for Amtrak for 25 years as a conductor’s assistant on the Southwest Chief, which ran from Los Angeles to Chicago. “At first it was a big adventure, but as the years went by, I got homesick for Acoma,” she recalled. Later she worked for the Grants/Cibola County School District for 11 years as an educational assistant. “The language program was ready when I was ready to come home and help our kids,” she said. “Until I started teaching the language classes I didn’t realize how much knowledge needed to be brought back to the children.”

Loudon teaches Keres at Cubero Elementary School in addition to part time teaching at LAHS. She is a native of Acoma Pueblo, but spent most of her childhood in Arizona where her father was a foreman for the Santa Fe Railroad. She grew up playing with Navajo kids, but at home her entire family spoke Keres. Her late grandfathers on both sides spoke the old, traditional form of Keres.

Loudon dropped out of high school, but later earned her GED certificate and went on to get a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of New Mexico. She has a state teaching license in elementary education. Louden taught early childhood education at Acoma Head Start, fifth grade at Pine Hill School on the Navajo Reservation and second grade for the Zuni Public School system. She has a total of 25 years’ experience as a classroom teacher and became involved in teaching the Keres language at the Acoma Language Retention summer camps, which were established in 1999. She found that the school district needed certified teachers and that eventually led her to the newly established Keres language program.

Because the course integrates artistic and cultural elements such as traditional sewing and moccasin making, the students learn much more than language. “All these elements make the students want to learn more about their history and culture. They develop a better comprehension of what our ceremonies and prayers mean,” Louden said.

“I really feel like I’ve come home,” she added. “This program is so important because it helps the kids to build self esteem and identity. These students want to know who they are and the language and traditions really help them with that discovery.”

The teachers said they have found that many of their students want to take the course more than once, but the necessity of accruing all required courses often prevents this. The Keres language course is an elective, so if a student requires an extra elective for graduation, he can take the course a second time.

“Often the students who have already taken the course act as mentors for the new kids,” Yazzie said.

A pool of qualified teachers is being developed by the pueblo’s community-based education program. An evaluator from the Linguistics Institute for Native Americans at the University of New Mexico will assess the Keres language program in the near future.

Hale pointed out that attempts are being made to establish language programs for all 22 Native American communities in New Mexico, which include the 19 pueblos, two Apache reservations and one Navajo community.

Yazzie noted that, “the students start to say that they’re proud to be from Acoma and that they have a better understanding of the clan system. This course starts a continuous learning process that the students will carry on to their lives in college, the workforce and their families.”